29-09-05
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he is seeking to share his country's
oil wealth with every nation in South America, aiming to strengthen ties while
offering an alternative to the US-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Chavez says his "Petroamerica" initiative is intended to reach countries across
the hemisphere, and that Venezuela has ample reserves to help the region deal
with high oil prices for generations to come.
"The models of South American integration that they tried to impose on us...
those free market, free commerce and neo-liberalism models have collapsed. They
don't work any more," Chavez said as he arrived for a South American summit in
Brazil's capital of Brasilia.
"With this mission of energy integration, Venezuela guarantees petroleum and gas
for the South American continent for at least 200 years," he said.
Chavez said Venezuela and Brazil will jointly exploit an oil block in the
Orinoco tar belt, and that further deals were planned with Argentina and
Uruguay. Officials also announced Brazil and Venezuela agreed to share the cost
of building a new $ 2.5 bn (euro2.08 bn) refinery in north-eastern Brazil to
process up to 200,000 barrels of crude a day.
Few specifics have been released of future deals under the Petroamerica
initiative, but some of its aims include stepping up refining capacity and
promoting joint exploitation of oil and natural gas.
Officials have not excluded the possibility that Chavez may also extend new
offers of oil sales under preferential terms as he has before.
"Everyone on the continent is looking with a lot of interest," Santiago Chavez,
a trade official from Ecuador's embassy in Venezuela said after energy ministers
from 12 South American countries signed a declaration in Caracas pledging to
pursue the Petroamerica initiative.
Uruguay's energy sub-secretary, Martin Ponce de Leon, has said one example of
the type of integration under consideration was a plan for Venezuela to help
expand a refinery in Uruguay to process50,000 barrels of heavy crude a day.
Officials say Petroamerica will integrate previous cooperative oil projects --
Petrosur, PetroCaribe and Petroandina -- under which Venezuela has agreed to
sell fuel to other countries in the region under preferential terms and with
low-interest financing.
In June, Chavez signed the PetroCaribe deal with 13 Caribbean countries to
sell 190,000 barrels of fuel a day under terms that are expected to save them
millions of dollars. Eleven of those countries have since signed more specific
deals allowing them to pay only a portion of their debt up front and finance the
rest over 25 years at low interest rates. Venezuela has also said they can pay
some debts with goods such as rice, bananas or sugar.
Chavez, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, has said the regional energy
alliances are aimed at challenging US economic domination in the region and
distributing fuel directly to avoid costly intermediaries.
The Venezuelan leader has been a harsh critic of capitalism and accused
US-backed free trade policies of helping American companies at the expense of
Latin countries by drawing away their natural resources, while doing nothing to
confront poverty. Some have accused Chavez of taking advantage of a tight oil
market to buy political alliances.
"Who doesn't do that? ... Venezuela uses its petroleum at critical moments,"
said Professor Mazhar al Shereidah, a Venezuelan oil expert and professor at
Central University of Venezuela. "Why would it lose this opportunity?"
Source: ap.tbo.com